


Epic

by Esselle



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Surfers, Bickering, Crushes, Enemies to Friends, Falling In Love, Fluff, M/M, Summer Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-29
Updated: 2018-04-29
Packaged: 2019-04-29 18:58:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14479089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Esselle/pseuds/Esselle
Summary: ' "I love surfing as much as anybody, but that doesn't mean I have to be a drag about it!" Hinata says. "Those kids are still trying to learn how to balance on their stomachs, and I'm trying to make sure they have fun doing it. You'll notice they weren't crying untilafteryou showed up?""Dude," Ukai says to Kageyama, "you made a kid cry?""He made Suzy cry," Hinata confirms.Ukai shakes his head at Kageyama. "You need to find your chill, brother." '--When the tide brings Kageyama Tobio to the warm, sandy shores of a new town, he thinks he’ll check out the local surf scene and roll back out pretty quickly. But when he meets happy-go-lucky surf instructor Hinata Shouyou, he starts to realize the beaches here have a sun brighter than most, and Kageyama might find himself basking in the rays a little longer than he’d initially planned.[words by Esselle, art by reallycorking.]





	Epic

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! This story is a collaborative project between myself and [reallycorking](http://reallycorking.tumblr.com/)! I wrote the words, and she drew the art, but we came up with the concept and plot together from start to finish -- from walkin' along the pier near where I live and getting overly excited about "houseboat Kageyama" to outlining, sketching, and finalizing all our concepts ^^
> 
> Thanks for reading, and we hope you enjoy!

"Thanks for the lift," Kageyama tells the driver of the hobbly truck he'd been fortunate enough to be noticed by, miles back on the highway. He'd been walking slowly along the sidewalk overgrown with weeds and tall grass, thumb hitched high into the air.

Now he's reached his destination, a bustling city by the sea as populated by tourists as the locals that live there. The busy pier is visible in the distance, the strand made lively and colorful by all the beach towels and umbrellas and bathing suits. Kageyama hops out of the truck, slings his backpack over his shoulder, and pulls open the door to the back seat so he can grab his surfboard.

This is everything he's carrying, all that he's brought with him. It means the unfamiliar waves lapping the sandy beach are all he has for company. This new city will have to be his home for now.

That reminds him. The truck honks once in farewell as it trundles off, and Kageyama sighs. He doesn't technically have a place to stay yet. So he turns toward the pier, knowing the easiest to find motels will all be on the strand—with any luck, some of them might even be affordable.

But walking along the sand with the water right alongside him is leaving too much up to temptation. He can hear the surf calling to him, hear the crashing tempo of the waves, a rhythm he knows as well as his own heartbeat. He's barely even thought about it before he's ducking into a little public restroom. When he emerges, it's with his wetsuit on; too warm for the current climate, but it's all he's got to wear in the surf. His backpack with his few possessions now stowed, his single minded determination pulls him towards the water.

Kageyama has been traveling along the coast since he left his last town so surfing opportunities haven't been scarce, but it still seems like too long since he last dove in. He paddles his shortboard out away from the shore. There's lots of people already out swimming, or on their own boards—this place, with its perfect point breaks, must have a dozen popular surf spots. But nobody rides the waves the way Kageyama can.

The water is warm, the waves are a perfect height. Kageyama feels the first wave start to build and checks to make sure he's not dropping in on another surfer, before flipping his board around, popping up with practiced ease, to ride the wave.

His pulse rises like the water; it's a big wave and he takes the drop right down the face of it, building speed, seasalt spray and wind whipping his hair back. He carves through the wave, turning and cutting back up its face before maneuvering into the barrel, riding the tube, surrounded by water on all sides. At any second it could collapse, but instead of feeling suffocated, he just feels fearless, playing with one of nature's most powerful forces like it's a lion cub. The sunny opening of the aquablue tunnel teases right in front of his board as he thrusts his arm out, burying it in the face of the wave to stall his speed, extending his ride inside the pipe.

Kageyama shifts his weight, riding out the other side of it, pulling his board into the air— _flying._ He whips his board off the lip of the wave into a perfect 360 alley-oop before touching smoothly back down on the flat of the water. It's so perfectly executed it seems like the ocean itself is at his command. He coasts for a few more feet before he piles off his board right into the ocean in a graceless sideways dive, too euphoric to care how silly he looks.

This feeling is why he keeps moving from town to town, beach to beach. The first new wave caught; knowing there's many more ahead of him, and that he'll learn something new with each one. Why stop, when he can keep riding it?

He breaks the surface of the water, sweeps his hair out of his face, and hears, "Th-th-that was _epic!"_

The voice is high, and very squeaky, and Kageyama turns to find the owner. It's some kid, staring openly at him. He's got hair the same blinding orange color as his surfboard tied back in a little ponytail so the fang earring he wears is clearly visible. He's a total goober; the longboard he's riding is almost definitely too big for him, Kageyama thinks idly. It's twice his size, but the kid probably thinks it looks cool, just like the shell necklace he's wearing.

"Thanks," Kageyama says.

"You from out of town?" the kid asks, and then before Kageyama can respond, "I've never seen anyone surf like that in real life before! Are you pro? Where'd you learn how to surf? How did you do that thing inside the keg? Dude, that was so cool! Can you do more tricks? Oh, I'm Hinata Shouyou, by the way! I love surfing, too!"

That last, at least, is obvious. Maybe a little _too_ obvious. "Uh," Kageyama says, completely unsure of where to even start responding, "I'm new here, yeah."

"Oh, yeah?" Hinata asks excitedly. "You're not just visiting?"

"Just stopping in town for now," Kageyama says. He never knows how long he'll stay. "You're from around here?"

"Born and raised!" Hinata says cheerfully. "Been surfing these waves since, like, before I could walk!"

"Yeah? In that case," Kageyama says, "what's the best surf spot around here?"

Hinata cocks his head and looks around at the water. "You're in one!"

"Right, but I mean, for a challenge," Kageyama clarifies. "Where do the heavy surfers line up?"

But Hinata still looks confused. "Still… here? What do you think we're all doing out here?"

Kageyama laughs a little bit in surprise. "Heavy? You?"

They stare at each other in silence momentarily. Hinata's face contorts abruptly.

"Oy! Asshole!" he shouts. "What's that supposed to mean?!"

"It doesn't—mean anything," Kageyama sputters, stunned.

He's only been talking to this guy for two minutes and he's already gone from _epic_ to _asshole?_ He can tell by this kid's look he's the farthest thing from heavy—Kageyama didn't know he was supposed to be pretending otherwise.

He tries a different tactic. "I just want a challenge."

"Oh, right," Hinata says, "because you couldn't possibly find a _challenge_ out here with the rest of us losers, huh?"

"Well, yeah," Kageyama says. He doesn't want to be rude, but it's obviously true. Some grom on a longboard, that easily impressed by tube surfing? A more experienced rider would at least _pretend_ to have seen it all. "No offense, but you're still just a kid."

"I'm—what?!" Hinata yelps. "I'm not a kid!"

"Dude, come _on_ ," Kageyama scoffs, "you've gotta be, what, still in high school?" 

Hinata blinks at him. As Kageyama watches, he starts to puff up like an angry blowfish, cheeks reddening and filling indignantly with air, eyes squeezing closed against the force of his offendedness.

"You really are unbelievable," Hinata snaps out, "but _not!_ In a _good_ way!" He starts paddling away on his board, apparently done having anything to do with Kageyama.

"So, like… are you not gonna tell me a spot?" Kageyama calls.

"Go find one yourself!" Hinata shouts, paddling away faster.

"Fine!" Kageyama shouts back. What a little shit—he's the one who tried to talk to Kageyama in the first place, isn't he? Where does he get off leaving him high and dry just because Kageyama gave him an honest answer? Frustrated, he turns back to catch some more waves, stowing the more theatrical maneuvers in favor of riding the swells steadily to calm his irritation.

When he pauses to catch his breath for a moment, he glances out over the water and notices a telltale flash of orange farther along. He's sure Hinata is still watching him from a distance. His annoyance resurfaces. Maybe the idiot has been able to discern the vast difference in their skill level at this point.

His urge to ride the waves quelled for the time being, he surfs his way back to shore and rinses himself and his board in the showers. Motels around beaches are usually pretty laid back, but staff still tend not to be on board with people tracking wet sand in all over the lobby. No shirt, no shoes, no service—no sand, however, is a plus. And Kageyama is going to need to find a place soon if he doesn't want to sleep outside his first night in town.

He'll try to come up with a plan for his extended stay in the morning, he thinks, when he isn't so braindead after so many long days of traveling. And, it seems, he'll just have to find the perfect waves himself—with or without help from the locals.

*

Kageyama is up early the next morning. The bed in the motel he stayed at isn't the comfiest he's encountered (understatement), so instead of laying in, he decides to check out the town. His first stop, unsurprisingly, is the surf shop. He's nearly out of wax for his board, and if he's going to stay there, he needs to make sure the shop has what he needs.

The bell jingles as he enters, and he hears music. It's tinny, not coming from the store speakers, but from an old radio on the counter at the front of the store. The counter itself is currently unmanned, but as soon as he steps inside, somebody hollers, "Be right there!"

"No rush," Kageyama says. He's fine looking around by himself for a bit.

Sakanoshita Surf Shop is small, but well-stocked, and he definitely can't raise any objections with the quality of their goods. He's just picked up a box of Zog's Sexwax, along with a new tube of sunscreen, when there's a loud, and very suspicious sounding _"Ooooh!"_ from behind him. He turns.

It's the kid from before—Hinata, if Kageyama is remembering correctly. He's pointing at Kageyama like he caught Kageyama attempting to walk off with all the store's surf supplies.

"You!" Hinata says.

"Uh, hey," Kageyama acknowledges. "Do you… happen to know who's working here? I wanna buy these."

Hinata glares at him. "Yeah, I do."

"Oh, great," Kageyama says.

Hinata shakes his head very slowly. Equally as slowly, he stalks behind the counter to the cash register, before leaning his elbows on it and looking expressionlessly at Kageyama.

"How can I help you, _brah?"_ he asks scathingly, turning the usually friendly greeting into total disrespect.

_"You_ work here?" Kageyama asks. "For like, a summer job?"

Hinata throws up his hands. "I work here full time! I'm not in high school!"

Kageyama squints at him. "How old are you?"

"I'm twenty-one!"

"Wha—no way," Kageyama says. There's no way Hinata is a year older than him. "When's your birthday?"

"June," Hinata tells him.

So he just turned twenty-one, Kageyama figures. Hinata is only six months older—Kageyama still isn't sure he buys it. Hinata is too small and too… _cute_ to be older than him. Also, too annoying. Kageyama thought older people were supposed to be mature or something.

"Why?" Hinata presses him. "How old are you? When's _your_ birthday?"

"Can I just pay for these?" Kageyama asks, dropping his stuff on the counter.

"Hey, I answered you!" Hinata protests. Still, he starts ringing up Kageyama's purchases. "Since you left pretty quick yesterday you missed some rad waves. I've been surfing for _a while_ so I could tell that they were gonna start rolling in…"

He keeps talking but Kageyama isn't listening. There's a cork board behind Hinata, hung up with posters and flyers for local events, concerts, store sales, all facets of life on the strand. But in one corner, Kageyama spots it.

"Hey," he says, interrupting the middle of Hinata's spiel about how he's (probably, he thinks) the best noserider on the beach, "is that still available?"

Hinata freezes mid-word, looking annoyed at not being listened to, but before he can respond, the door to the backroom opens and an older man walks out.

Instantly, Kageyama can tell that this guy knows his way around the waves. He's got that look—bleached hair held back by a headband, demeanor laid back but still alert, young but still a bit weathered from all the sun. He nods at Kageyama before addressing Hinata.

"Oy, Hinata," he says, "did that new shipment of fins come in yet?"

"Not y—"

"Are you the owner here?" Kageyama asks. He hears an angry hiss from behind him that might be Hinata, but he ignores it.

"I am," the man says, raising an eyebrow at him. "Haven't seen you come in before."

"I just got into town," Kageyama says.

"Oh, I see," the man says, turning to rest an elbow on the counter as he surveys Kageyama. A grin works its way across his face. "You're the kook Hinata was telling me about."

Kageyama frowns. In surf lingo, a kook was someone who tried to look and act like a surfer, but couldn't back it up in or out of the water. A poser.

"I'm not a kook," he says, shooting a glare at Hinata, who glares right back.

"You just show up out of nowhere, show off some fancy tricks, and call us locals losers?" Hinata accuses him. "Sounds like a kook to me."

"Oh, yeah?" Kageyama crosses his arms. "Says the _kid_ who talks big but has never seen someone do an alley-oop before."

"I've seen 'em!" Hinata says agitatedly. "Yours was just really—really—" He turns red and looks away, scratching at his cheek, before whirling back to stab his finger in Kageyama's direction. "I was just trying to be nice, and _you_ were a jerk!"

"You asked me a question, and I answered it!"

"Jerkily! You big, dumb… jerk!"

A burst of loud laughter stops them both in their tracks. The shop owner has his head thrown back in amusement. "Okay, I see," he says. "You're both kooks."

Kageyama and Hinata look at each other, then back at him. "Huh?"

"Name's Ukai," the man says, holding his hand out. "And I _am_ the owner of this establishment."

Kageyama shakes his hand, wondering whether or not he should be offended. "Kageyama."

Hinata gasps in offense yet again. "You didn't even _bother_ telling me your name yesterday, after I told you mine—!"

"I wanted to ask you, that flyer about the houseboat," Kageyama says, pointing toward the one he meant. Ukai pulls it off the cork board to look at it closer. "Do you know if that's available to rent?"

Ukai rubs at his chin and then grins. "As a matter of fact I do. It's mine."

"Really?" Kageyama asks. "Could I still—"

"All yours if you can pay the deposit," Ukai tells him.

"I can!" Kageyama says. Ukai is renting out the houseboat month to month for an unbelievably cheap price, likely because nobody really wants to live in a tiny boat for extended periods of time, except for Kageyama.

"What?" Hinata asks. "But he can't—you can't let _him—"_

"I _can_ let him," Ukai says blithely, "seeing as it's _mine._ " Kageyama counts out the rent in cash on the counter, as Ukai looks on amusedly. "Hinata, can you get the keys and show him where he'll be staying?"

Hinata looks like he knows he'll be in for it if he tries to argue any further. He disappears into the back room, grumbling mightily under his breath as the door slams behind him, to which Ukai sighs long sufferingly. He comes back with a set of keys, jerking his head in Kageyama's direction. Kageyama follows.

It's still a lazy time of morning, late enough in the day that most people are awake, but not quite ready to start being very active yet. The sun is already starting to heat up the day, and the beach looks warm and inviting. A lot of the people that own the little trinket and beach shops on the strand are friendly with Hinata, waving hello as they pass. It's a short walk to the marina with all its tethered boats, forest of masts waving in the air, bobbing with the gentle waves.

Ukai's boat is hard to miss—bright yellow, with his store name emblazoned across the side in bold black letters, and a string of crows flying above the lettering. They walk up the gangway and Hinata hands Kageyama the keys.

"You have to jiggle the handle a bit," he says. For a moment, Kageyama wonders if Hinata has decided to call a momentary truce in light of Kageyama living in his employer's rental. Hinata covers his mouth. "Oops, sorry—you probably don't need any help from a loser like me!"

"You said it, not me," Kageyama shoots back mercilessly. "Just give me the keys."

Hinata scowls at him and drops the keys in his hand, and Kageyama unlocks the door, with more than just a _bit_ of handle-jiggling—he kicks the door in frustration at one point and hears Hinata snickering, but when he whips around to glare, Hinata's face is innocent as a baby's.

The inside of the boat is unsurprisingly cramped and tiny—wood paneling, peeling paint, a ceiling that brushes the top of Kageyama's head—but it's clean and homey and inviting, somehow. It might be small, but the ocean is just outside the windows, stretching onto the horizon. And besides, there's an open air deck any time Kageyama needs some space.

"It's nice," he says.

"Woah, so you _can_ be polite when you want to be," Hinata observes. Kageyama rounds on him and Hinata jumps back, on his guard.

"Can _you_ be less of a dumbass, or is that impossible for you?"

"I hope you like your new boat," Hinata tells him. He adds scathingly as he turns to leave, "Enjoy trying to learn your way around by yourself. I hope you have fun surfing alone, without any friends."

"Why would I need that?" Kageyama frowns. "I always surf alone."

Hinata pauses at the door. When he looks back at Kageyama, he seems like he has something more he wants to add. But then he just shakes his head and leaves without another word.

Finally left to the solace of his new lodgings, Kageyama can feel the gentle rocking of the boat, lulling him. He needs to get back to the motel and pick up his backpack and his board. But he has a little time left before checkout to enjoy the peace and quiet.

He thinks about what Hinata said. He can't see why he would need other people around, in order to have fun surfing. After all, it's just him and his board and the water—whether or not there are other people around, observing, or catching their own waves, it makes no difference to him.

Hinata must just not realize that because he isn't very good, Kageyama thinks to himself. Determined to forget about Hinata, and his wide angry eyes in his round face, Kageyama decides to look around the boat for the fishing equipment the flyer promised. If he can catch anything, it'll be a good way to keep his food costs low.

Plus, fishing is good stress relief.

*

Kageyama doesn't see Hinata again for a few days. He spends some time exploring the city, and the beaches. Most are pretty popular, but Hinata seems only to frequent the waves Kageyama first met him in. It's maybe fitting, then, that this is where Kageyama finds him again.

He's walking along the pier that day, a vanilla ice cream cone in hand, enjoying the cold creamy sweetness and the hot sun on his face, when he hears an all too familiar voice from below him, in the water.

"Keep paddling, don't get nervous! The water loves you back!"

As stealthily as he can manage with a drippy ice cream cone in hand, Kageyama peeks over the edge of the wooden pier railing. And there in the shallows to his non-surprise, because there could be no mistaking that voice, is Hinata Shouyou on his longboard.

He is currently surrounded by a handful of kids, small ones, all around the age that makes Kageyama uneasy because he can never tell what they're thinking when they stare at him with their too-shrewd little eyes. He's not good with children.

Of Hinata, he thinks it's safe to say the opposite can be said. The kids all hang on his every word, some of them imitating his movements as he shows them how to maneuver a surfboard.

"You don't want your nose to point at the sky," he says, thumping the tip of one of the little girls' boards, and she giggles.

He's showing them, Kageyama realizes. Hinata is showing them how to surf.

"Shouyou, Shouyou," one of the boys says, "can you show us how to stand again?"

"The pop-up!" cries another, and they all cheer.

"Okay," Hinata agrees, "are you watching closely?" When he gets a chorus of yeses, he nods.

He lays flat on his board, and then, with all of them staring raptly at him, pops up to stand on it. He assumes a classic "cool" stance while he's at it, legs spread apart wide and arms out for stabilizing—despite being in flat water. Kageyama hangs over the railing in disbelief.

"What the fu—" He remembers there are kids nearby just in time. "What the heck are you doing?!"

Hinata falls off his board. He resurfaces, grabbing onto it and twisting all around, trying to spot the source of the voice.

"Up here," Kageyama yells. Hinata looks up and spots him.

"Kageyama!" he shouts, swiping his arm in Kageyama's direction. "Go away!"

"Last I checked, the pier is a public walkway," Kageyama points out. "And anyway, you're doing that wrong!"

Hinata throws up a hand in annoyance. "I'm not even doing anything!"

"When you're standing," Kageyama says, "your legs don't need to be that wide apart. But you should bend your knees more."

"Do you think I don't know that?" Hinata snaps. "For real, dude? Is this, like, at all necessary?"

"Well, you weren't doing it," Kageyama says.

"That's because I'm not—" Hinata looks utterly baffled. "It's called 'messing around', Kageyama. Do you even know what that is?"

"You shouldn't mess around in the water," Kageyama tells him. "They might get the wrong idea, it's difficult to relearn the fundamentals of surfing."

Hinata stares at him blankly for a moment. Then he turns back to the kids. "Tell me something, guys. Can you tell when I'm joking?"

"Yeeees," they all chorus. Hinata looks back up at Kageyama.

"Oh, whatever," Kageyama says, "they're kids, what do they know?"

"Shouyou, who is that _weird guy?"_ one of the boys asks.

Kageyama points at him, and loses a large dollop of his ice cream in the process. "You, quiet. The adults are talking." The boy makes a face at him.

"Thank you, for at least finally admitting I am an adult," Hinata says. To the boy, he adds, "That is Kageyama, and we are all going to ignore him now. Because he's a _kook!"_ He yells this last as loud as he can, and all the kids giggle wildly.

"I'm _not_ a—" Kageyama starts to yell back, but Hinata is already turning his back on him. _"Oy."_

Hinata does his pop-up again. This time, he seems to have taken Kageyama's advice, pulling his legs closer together, and bending his knees. But he keeps going—bending lower and lower until his rear end is sticking out ridiculously.

He shakes his ass at Kageyama like a peacock, and Kageyama sees red.

"DUMBASS!" he roars, completely forgetting about the children watching, leaning so far over the railing he's in danger of pitching over it into the water below. "You're a dumb! Ass!"

"What's that?" Hinata asks, wiggling around as he puts a hand to his ear. "I can't hear it over the sound of all this _fun_ I'm having! With my _friends!"_

"You can't surf standing like that!" Kageyama says, enraged. "This is why you _suck!"_

"Shouyou doesn't need your help!" one of the girls says. "He's the best surfer ever!"

"He's not!" Kageyama says. "And if you think that, then you probably suck, too!" He realizes he's gone too far even before the kid bursts into tears. "Ah… it's not your fault though…" It's definitely Hinata's fault, both that none of these kids will ever grow up to be competent surfers, and also that Kageyama lost his temper.

The girl paddles sadly to Hinata and shoves her snotty face into his chest, wailing at the top of her lungs. Hinata hugs her protectively and glares up at Kageyama.

"I told you to go away already," he says. "Are you done now?"

"I'm—" Kageyama starts to say, and then his entire ice cream falls out of the cone and into the ocean. That's probably a sign, just like the unpleasant churning in his stomach. "Y-yeah. Sorry."

Hinata looks kind of surprised at this—like he really thought Kageyama was just going to haul off and keep berating him and a bunch of seven year olds. Which maybe says more about Kageyama, than it does about Hinata. Kageyama opens his mouth to apologize again, and then decides it won't do him any good. He nods to Hinata and walks away.

He finds himself at Sakanoshita, somehow. The bell tinkling when he walks in alerts Ukai, who appears from behind a shelf. When he sees it's Kageyama, he says, "Oh, Kageyama, perfect! Can you help me—grab the door—"

Kageyama jumps forward to help, as Ukai struggles to get a huge surfboard through the door. It's a gun—ten feet long at least. Gun surfboards took their name from the term "elephant gun"; they were the biggest tool in any arsenal, specialized for hunting down and riding the biggest waves.

"Are you selling this?" Kageyama asks.

"Nope," Ukai says, "it's mine. Don't get to use it that often so I thought I'd put it back here for safekeeping."

"How come you don't use it?"

"How often do you think I get to drop everything I'm doing and get out in the water?" Ukai asks. "Let alone waiting around for the real heavy waves? That's what your youth is for, man. You should enjoy it."

"I am," Kageyama says, honestly. That's why he does this, moving around from place to place, practically living in the water. "My face makes it hard to tell, sometimes."

Ukai chuckles. "Look grumpy all you want, I don't care. Just try and have fun while you're at it." He grunts as he hefts the huge board onto a display rack at the back of the room. "Thanks, by the way. It's always a little tough manning the shop when Hinata's got his classes."

"Classes?" Kageyama asks blankly. Is Hinata still in school?

"Yeah, we offer surf lessons here at the shop," Ukai tells him. "A couple for different age groups, and some for tourists of all ages, that kind of thing. I think he's got the little ones right now… he should be done soon."

"Oh, shit," Kageyama says, right before the door slams open, the bell jangling furiously.

"Ukai, are you in here?" Hinata's voice yells.

"Back here," Ukai says, before Kageyama can signal to him that he needs to _escape._ "Don't slam the door, Hinata, how many times do I have to say this?"

"Okay, you know that guy, Kageyama? I _told_ you he's the worst, listen to thi—" Hinata rounds the shelf and sees Kageyama standing there. "Oh, no, nope, you need to leave—"

"Wait," Kageyama says, "I came to…" He's not really sure why he's there, exactly. He already apologized on the pier, and he knows Hinata probably doesn't want to hear him out anyway. "I didn't realize it was an actual class!"

"What did you _think_ it was?!" Hinata asks.

"I just—I don't know, I thought maybe those were your friends you were talking about—"

"You realize I have friends my own age, right?" Hinata asks. "And besides, why does that matter?"

"It doesn't, I guess," Kageyama says, frustrated. "But you should take it more seriously, anyway—"

"No, I shouldn't!" Hinata shouts. "I love surfing as much as anybody, but that doesn't mean I have to be a drag about it! That doesn't prove anything, you know. Those kids are still trying to learn how to balance on their stomachs, and I'm trying to make sure they have fun doing it. You'll notice they weren't crying until _after_ you showed up?"

"Dude," Ukai says, watching this argument unfold with great interest, "you made a kid cry?"

"He made Suzy cry," Hinata confirms.

Ukai shakes his head at Kageyama. "You need to find your chill, brother."

_"Thank_ you," Hinata says. "I'm not sure he has any."

"I didn't—" Kageyama says, swallowing hard. He's heard this all before, it's true—he doesn't fit in with the culture of the sport he loves best, and he knows it. It's why he likes surfing alone. But, it's not like that excuses his earlier behavior. "I didn't mean to make her cry. I just—if they learn it wrong—"

"They _won't,"_ Hinata says firmly. "Look, maybe I can't do a bunch of awesome tricks. But I don't need to be the best at it to teach someone else. I've been out here my whole life, just like you. If you want to be super serious, fine, but that's you. I'll surf my way, you surf yours."

"What exactly is your way?" Kageyama asks. He's still skeptical, but also a little bit curious. Surfing seriously _is_ fun for him.

"Well, I teach classes every weekday from eleven to three," Hinata says, "so if you really want to know, you can stop by. But _no talking."_ Irritably, he stomps into the backroom. The door slams behind him.

"I said don't slam—forget it," Ukai says, waving his hand. He turns back to Kageyama. "So, how are you liking the boat?"

"Huh?" Kageyama asks, staring so hard after Hinata that he nearly misses the question. "Oh, it's great."

"Glad to hear it," Ukai says. "You should take him up on that offer, by the way. Might learn a thing or two yourself."

Kageyama thinks about saying that he doesn't think he can learn anything from Hinata, but doesn't in the end. He thinks he's already been proved wrong on that front once today.

"Yeah," he says, instead. "Maybe I will."

*

"What… are you doing?"

This question is directed at Kageyama, although he's not sure why. He stands in the line-up on the sand, which is what the kids are doing, so he figured he should imitate them to avoid causing a stir. It doesn't appear to be working very well. The kids are all clumped as far away from him as they can get, and Hinata is staring at him like he's lost his mind.

"You said to stop by," Kageyama reminds him.

Hinata squints at him so hard his eyes are almost closed. "I meant—watch. From _afar."_

Okay, well—now that he says _that_ it seems obvious, but Kageyama isn't sure how he was supposed to know that without proper context. He feels his face getting red but chooses to act like it's not.

"If I don't watch you up close, how am I supposed to…" He flounders for an excuse.

"Supposed to…" Hinata needles. "What?"

"To… get a look at your teaching methods!" Kageyama says triumphantly.

"You didn't realize what I meant until just now, did you—"

"You should've said that originally!" Kageyama huffs.

"You can't come to class with us!" one little boy shouts. "You made Suzy cry!" Suzy is hiding behind Hinata's legs, and she looks _pissed._

"Alright, I know, already," Kageyama grunts. "I'll, um… I'll get you guys all ice cream after this. To make up for it."

The atmosphere instantly changes. The kids all look at one another in shock, and then an enormous cheer goes up from the whole group. Suzy still looks skeptical.

"Suzy, I'll get you two," Kageyama pleads.

"Deal," she says instantly.

"Hold up—" Hinata starts to say. "You can't just buy off my class—"

"The kook is our king now!" one of the kids shouts. They all begin to chant "King Kook!" over and over, as Kageyama turns to Hinata smugly.

"Aren't you barely making your rent as it is?" Hinata asks him. "This class has an admission fee, by the way!"

"I think I just paid it," Kageyama says. "Besides, I doubt I'm gonna learn anything, so I technically don't owe you any money."

"That is super not true," Hinata says, "and also, super rude? You're still the worst, but I need to start class, so you're in luck."

Kageyama pumps his fists in the air. All the kids do the same, still cheering. Suddenly, the people love him.

"Alright, alright, come on," Hinata says, picking up his longboard. "I can't believe you all would just betray me like that."

The lesson doesn't go as Kageyama would expect. He doesn't learn anything new about technical surfing, which he knew he wouldn't. But… he doesn't _not_ have fun.

A lot of it is how flat-out hilarious the kids are. They don't know anything about surfing, and they don't give a damn that they don't. Compared to older surfers, for whom knowledge and experience is everything that matters, it's a sharp change in atmosphere. This would normally drive Kageyama up a wall, but when it's all pointed in Hinata's direction, it suddenly becomes ten times as funny.

"But if you could surf with your hands," one of the boys keeps saying, "it'd be like seven _thousand_ times easier than if you did it with your feet. That's why we _do stuff_ with our hands."

"Well," Hinata says, as he helps one of the girls practice kicking while lying on her board, "you're talking to someone who can do both, and trust me, it's way better to use your feet."

The kids are unconvinced. "You can do _both?!"_

"Yup," Hinata says, nonchalantly.

"Show us!"

"Prove it!"

Even Kageyama is intrigued, though he says nothing, per his earlier promise to Hinata not to talk during classes. Hinata shrugs and hops onto his board. He puts his hands down on it—and then very carefully pushes himself up into a handstand.

"Uh-huh," he says, grinning at them all upside down. "How do you like me now?!"

The kids _freak out._ Kageyama is fairly sure Hinata has been re-crowned the king already. He can hardly bring himself to care—even he can't do a fucking handstand on a surfboard. Hinata's arms may shake a bit with the effort, and he soon tumbles back into the water, laughing gleefully as the kids mob him. But the image of him lifting himself up there, smile beaming, exposed golden strip of skin exposed by his shirt riding up, sticks in Kageyama's head the rest of the class.

They do go out for ice cream after, and Kageyama treats everyone as promised, even Hinata. Kageyama is still not sure it makes up for causing one of his students to have a crying fit, but Hinata accepts it anyway. He slurps away at it with the rest of the kids as they all make their way back to the beach.

"So," Hinata says, "not gonna call me out on my improper methods? Not afraid they'll all start trying to surf on their hands now, are you?"

Kageyama shakes his head. "I doubt they could manage that."

Hinata laughs. "You'd be surprised the things kids can manage with very little effort."

"Well, you told them feet is better anyway."

"Yeah, I try to be a decent teacher," Hinata says.

"They seem to think you're pretty rad," Kageyama concedes.

"That's because I am the raddest," Hinata says breezily. "And what do you think? Now that you've watched me up close?"

Kageyama thinks about it for a long time. "Still a loser."

Hinata smooshes the last of his mango ice cream straight into Kageyama's face.

*

As the days go by, Hinata starts to become a fixture in Kageyama's life. Kageyama thinks he's imagining it at first, but it gets harder and harder to ignore—not that Kageyama is trying to ignore it. He gets used to seeing Hinata anyway, between the classes Kageyama insists on regularly attending and stopping by the surf shop in case Ukai needs any help, which he often does.

The surf shop owner seems to have taken a liking to Kageyama. Hinata is incensed when Ukai doesn't appear bothered at all by Kageyama getting free surf lessons; Ukai tells them it's payback for Hinata never listening to him about not slamming the door.

It's only a week or so after Kageyama has started staying in his houseboat that he hears a very insistent puttering motor outside. Evening has fallen, and although he's annoyed by the constant revving engine, he intends to ignore it. And then a loud voice starts shouting his name.

"Kageyamaaa! I know you're in there, come out!"

A look outside the windows confirms it's Hinata, on a jet ski, gliding back and forth and being a general disturber of the peace. Kageyama opens one of the boat windows and sticks his head out.

"What the hell, Hinata?" he yells. "What do you want?"

As soon as Hinata sees him watching he waves and shouts, "Watch this!"

He doubles back around so he can steer over his own wake, and then stands up from the seat. After making sure Kageyama is definitely watching, he does a couple jumps—tiny hops, really—grinning all the while, the wind whipping his hair about manically. He probably thinks he looks really cool, Kageyama thinks, as scathingly as he can manage inside his head.

"Is that all you came over here for?" he asks, as Hinata passes around again.

"Nope," Hinata says. He slows down and lets the jet ski idle closer to the boat. "Ukai wanted me to see if you wanna have dinner with us."

"What?" Kageyama asks. "Why?"

"Don't know," Hinata says with a shrug. "I told him not to invite you but he made me come."

This pretty much decides it for Kageyama. "Where? I'll meet you guys."

Hinata snorts, but then says, "Just get on, I'll take you."

Kageyama isn't sure why he agrees, but it turns out to be a monumentally bad idea when he arrives at the little diner on the water with his shorts soaking wet and Hinata killing himself laughing.

"You did all those stupid jumps on purpose," Kageyama says.

"Yeah, I did," Hinata says, cackling. He stops laughing and starts yelping when Kageyama yanks on his hair.

Kageyama thinks he should be more annoyed (he's very annoyed), but somehow, he can't bring himself to make that big of a deal out of it. He chalks it up to hunger. When he keeps joining Ukai and Hinata for dinner more often than not after that, he decides that's just because Ukai likes to treat them, and it's good for his budget.

Speaking of Kageyama's budget, although Hinata's kids have been told not to expect ice cream after their lessons, they still get it more often than not. Hinata has started refusing it, which makes Kageyama wonder if he's done something annoying again, but that turns out not to be the case.

"Don't you need to save your money?" Hinata says, after all the kids have gotten picked up by their parents. He and Kageyama gather up their boards, peeling off the tops of their wetsuits as they walk along the beach.

Kageyama absolutely should be saving his money. "It's fine," he says.

"Then why don't you ever get it for yourself anymore?" Hinata asks.

"I have ice cream back on the boat," Kageyama lies. "Anyways, today is special."

"How so?" Hinata asks.

"Three of them managed the pop-up without falling," Kageyama says, which is true. "And I can't just get only half of them ice cream."

Hinata grins, despite himself. "It'd cause civil war."

"Exactly."

"Well, thanks," Hinata says.

"It's not even that expensive," Kageyama says, even though it still adds up.

"Not the ice cream," Hinata says. "They've been watching you do it, too. I'm pretty sure that's how Kenta figured it out, he does it just the way you do."

Kageyama blinks. He hadn't even noticed this—he's been following along in class even though he knows how to do a pop-up, obviously. It just seemed polite. But then he frowns.

"Just watching someone do it isn't enough to learn," he says. "They've gotta practice, and you're the one who's been adjusting their stances and helping them balance."

"A joint effort, then," Hinata says, smiling.

"Yeah…" Kageyama says. He gets distracted by the way Hinata is smiling, his hair falling slightly out of its tie from being buffeted by waves for the better part of an hour, his brown eyes turned even brighter and golden than usual after catching the sun's rays. Kageyama is staring. He glances away quickly.

"Seriously," Hinata says, smacking him on the arm and startling him, "stop wasting your money."

"It's not wasting it," Kageyama says. It doesn't feel like that.

"Yeah, it is," Hinata says. "They'll like you the same even if you don't buy them ice cream."

Kageyama wants to tell him that he's just doing it because he can, but unfortunately, Hinata seems to have already figured out that it's not financially feasible for him. And the truth is, it's been working. The kids get excited whenever they see him, even when it's not on the beach before class, and that feels pretty cool. Kageyama is fairly sure there's never been this many people at once who like being around him, and it all started with the ice cream.

"One of the moms asked me last week if you'd be staying around," Hinata says.

"Staying… in town?" Kageyama asks.

"Staying on as a surf instructor," Hinata says, looking endlessly amused. "They think Ukai hired you."

"Did you… tell them the truth?" Kageyama asks, mortified.

"No," Hinata says, "but you know what that means, right?" Kageyama shakes his head. "It means they talk about you a lot."

"Because I'm the Ice Cream Guy!"

Hinata has a coughing fit he laughs so hard. "Trust me, they like you."

"How can you tell?" Kageyama asks, trying not to sound as hopeful as he feels.

"Because," Hinata says, "I like you. And I'm 'just a kid', after all. Right?"

Kageyama goes to shove Hinata for throwing his words back at him _still,_ a month after he said them, before the words themselves register. He freezes.

"You—you do?"

Hinata sighs. "I _guess_ I do."

"How come?" Kageyama asks, still dumbfounded.

"Not sure," Hinata says, wrinkling his nose. "You're not an asshole _all_ the time. And I guess I need to follow my own advice."

"What do you mean?" Kageyama asks.

"We both have our own ways of surfing," Hinata says. "Doesn't mean we're not both having fun."

"I do have fun," Kageyama says. "It's just that I have the most fun when I'm getting better. When I'm challenging myself."

Hinata hums. "So you think I'm not trying to get better."

"That's not what I said."

"Yeah, but it's what you think," Hinata says.

Kageyama isn't sure of that, either. He definitely thought Hinata was clueless when they first met. But he doesn't think that, anymore. He's seen how hard it is to teach—he knows how well Hinata understands his board and the waves, in order to make it make sense to other people.

"I'm gonna make you admit it, eventually," Hinata says. "I'll make you say I'm not a loser!"

Kageyama thinks that might actually be pretty easy to admit, already.

But maybe not. Just like with the kids and the ice cream, once he finds a routine that works with someone, he doesn't know how to stray from it. Hinata likes him, he's just found out, and he doesn't want to mess it up by being too weirdly sappy or anything.

"You'll always be a loser," he says.

"And you'll always be an asshole," Hinata replies. He elbows Kageyama, goading him on with a grin. "Never change."

Kageyama hopes Hinata heard the fondness in his voice, the same way he hears it in Hinata's.

 

*

Just a few days later, there's a summer storm brewing. The surf report forecasts high waves across the beaches in the area, and the city's website warns tourists and locals alike that it is best to stay out of the water. Sakanoshita cancels surf lessons for the day.

Kageyama's legs feel twitchy. He hasn't surfed big waves, _really_ big waves, in a long time. He doesn't usually seek them out—he prefers the feeling of control he gets on smaller waves, the manageable ones he can trick out on.

But knowing the big ones are close is still a siren song for him.

In no time at all, he's tracing the usual path to the surf shop, barging in through the door. "Ukai!"

Ukai, and the little elderly lady he is helping find the perfect surfboard magnet for her grandson back home, both jump.

"The store is tiny," Ukai says. "Why are you still yelling?"

"Are you going out today?" Kageyama asks.

"Kageyama," Ukai says, a distinct undercurrent of admonishment in his voice, "I'm with a customer."

"Great, can I borrow your board?" Kageyama says instantly.

Ukai waves a hand in acceptance and Kageyama hurries for the back room, but when he opens it and looks in, the gun is gone. Ukai looks like he'll kick him out if Kageyama interrupts again, so he waits in tense silence until the granny has bustled off and Ukai is free. Before Ukai can ask him what he wants, he blurts,

"Did you move it?"

Ukai frowns. "What? No, it should be where I first put it, when you helped me."

"It's gone." Kageyama shakes his head. There's no one else who would be able to get back there besides Ukai and… "Where's Hinata?"

Ukai looks even more confused by this. "I figured he was with you. He doesn't—"

"He doesn't have class today," Kageyama says.

"Kageyama?" Ukai calls after him as Kageyama turns and runs out of the store.

Hinata isn't on call at the store during his class hours, but whenever he's not at the surf shop, or teaching, he's usually bothering Kageyama. Today, however, he isn't—and while that could technically mean he's doing any number of things, Kageyama has a gut feeling he knows exactly where Hinata is.

He reaches the beach but the waves are empty, predictably. They're huge, some of them twenty feet or more. Kageyama sighs in frustration—he's itching to get out there, but the board he needs is missing.

Or… perhaps it's not. As he's turning away from the water, a flash of contrasting color out at sea catches his eye and he whips his gaze back.

"What the hell, Hinata…" he murmurs.

It's red that he spots amid all the blue, far out where the waves break over one of the reefs out at sea. This is where the waves get biggest and gnarliest, and just like Kageyama suspected, Hinata is looking to ride one. There's a crowd starting to gather as more people spot him, way out there—of course, everybody wants to look. Everybody wants to watch the daredevil.

And Kageyama can't take his eyes off him.

He knew Hinata could surf—yeah, he'd been a jackass about it initially, but it hasn't been hard to see that Hinata does know what he's doing in the water. But he's never watched Hinata do much more than balance on his board or perform gimmicky tricks for the kids. He's never seen him really take on the ocean.

But he's challenging it now in front of everyone, their breaths held, as an enormous wave starts to form. Kageyama thinks it must be at least thirty feet—not the biggest he's seen, but it's certainly not fucking small; and Hinata turns the gun right into it. Kageyama's nails bite into his palm as Hinata pops up, and takes the drop down the face of the monster.

Hinata himself is small; and racing down the wall of water laid out before him, he seems laughably tiny. It makes it clear, the exact kind of audacity any surfer has got to have, to see the fury the ocean can throw out and think _I can handle that._ For Hinata to put himself in its path, he can't have any fear. From the way he surfs, Kageyama knows he doesn't; that, or he's just crazy enough to ignore it.

And it's fucking _epic._ Hinata is flying—he's absolutely charging the wave, nearly straight down for the first few death-defying seconds. He wobbles a little bit and Kageyama leans forward unconsciously, urging him on, and he doesn't fall. He hunkers down instead—and that's good form, Kageyama thinks approvingly in the back of his mind, even while the forefront is completely occupied with awe and the slightest bit of terror, at watching somebody, a person he has come to kind of _like_ no less, fling themselves willingly at the mercy of the ocean like this. Hinata's speed is so great that the board skips on the slope of the water, but Hinata doesn't lose his footing. His arms windmill a bit, but it's all to keep his balance, it's all for the sake of maintaining that perfect line, of riding the wave for as long and as fiercely as he can manage it.

The unbroken journey, that glide from the crest to the point where the wave finally starts to collapse, is one of the most beautiful things to witness. And Hinata, bright, annoying, insistent Hinata, who Kageyama once thought was a loser, has just pulled it off flawlessly.

The shout that goes up from the crowd, from the friends and locals who all know him, to the newcomers alike, is wild. Even Kageyama joins in, wondering if Hinata sees him out there watching—he cups his hands to his mouth and shouts his wordless praise. Hinata jams his fists in the air as he exits the wave, fingers held aloft in a triumphant V for victory.

Right after that, he wipes out. The whole crowd laughs, and Kageyama does, too—Hinata is still a loser. But he's a _cool_ loser, after that, so he can pretty much do whatever he wants. The show's over, and people start to filter away, but Kageyama wants to wait at the edge of the water for him.

A few seconds pass… and then a few more. A coldness trickles down Kageyama's spine. Judging by where Hinata went down, it would be right over the reef, and he and his board still haven't resurfaced. It's been too long.

"Fuck," he says, and then he's running for the water.

He plows through the surf until it gets deep enough, and then he's swimming, diving under the waves every time they roll in to keep from crashing straight into them. The water still fights him, buffetting him back and forth, but he's a good swimmer, fast, arms and legs stroking powerfully forward as he remembers to lift his head, breathe, and slip back under the surface. The reef is a dark, irregular mass, getting closer… closer…

There's someone trapped in it.

He fights down his fear, because if he starts to freak out, they're both goners. First, he gets his head above water and takes as deep a breath as his lungs will allow. Then he dives.

Hinata is floating in the water, pale and struggling, feebly. He sees Kageyama when Kageyama gets close enough, his eyes widening, and Kageyama realizes he's struggling _with_ something— _the leash._ His leg is completely tangled up in his surf leash, which has gotten wrapped up in the rocks.

A quick glance makes it clear that it's not pulling free of the reef, and it's knotted so tightly around Hinata's ankle it's cutting off his circulation. They'd need scissors, and they don't have that kind of time. The only other option is to break off the piece of the reef it's stuck around.

Kageyama floats back a bit and then kicks the jutting edge of the reef as hard as he can.

It fucking _hurts—_ the jagged edges jab and shear the soles of his feet, and he grits his teeth so he doesn't yell and waste oxygen. He kicks again and thinks he sees it jostle, just slightly.

Hinata is trying to help him, but he's been down too long already. His movements are getting slow and sluggish, and Kageyama swipes his hand at him as violently as he can, trying to get him to stand down, to save his remaining energy.

A third kick, and the thin section of rock cracks and bends. Trails of red swirl away from Kageyama's impact point, and the muscles in his leg scream in protest. His feet are a mess of blood, torn up by the sharp coral, but Hinata isn't moving anymore—he kicks once more, the hardest attempt yet. The reef breaks off, the leash spiraling free from the narrow, broken end. Ignoring the pain in his feet, Kageyama kicks forward and wraps his arms around Hinata, hauling him to the surface. He gasps as he clears it, drawing air back into his burning lungs.

"Hinata! _Hinata!"_

Hinata doesn't respond. Swearing, Kageyama swims, slowly, for land. Back on the shore, people have realized something is wrong. A jet ski comes racing towards them, and Kageyama sees Ukai is steering it—someone must have gone to get him.

"Get him on!" Ukai shouts, and Kageyama helps pull Hinata onto the back of the jet ski, climbing on himself to keep Hinata from falling off.

In the short moments it takes to get to shore, Kageyama progresses from shock to full blown panic. Hinata still hasn't moved, hasn't so much as blinked—is he breathing?

"Careful, careful—" Ukai says, as Kageyama pulls Hinata from the ski to lay him flat on the ground. He puts his ear to Hinata's chest, listening.

"He's breathing," Kageyama mumbles, relieved, "Hinata— _idiot,_ hey—come on—" He grabs Hinata's face in his hands and Hinata's whole body shudders. Then he coughs, right into Kageyama's face.

"Hey, woah," he says, voice feeble, "I'm not dead."

"You—" Kageyama starts to shout, but his voice cracks, instead. He drops his forehead to Hinata's shoulder and throws his arms around him, squeezing him probably way too tight for someone who just almost drowned.

"K-Kageyama?" Hinata squeaks. "Are you hugging me? Is that on purpose?"

"I'm not hugging you," Kageyama says, "I'm trying to crush you to death."

"Oh," Hinata says, and then he has the audacity to _laugh._ "Hey, wait, did you see it? Did you see what I did?!"

"Why do you think I'm here? Stupid Hinata!"

"Wasn't it awesome?" Hinata says. He wraps his arms around Kageyama, and Kageyama realizes how hard Hinata is shaking. "I've never surfed one that big before!"

Kageyama pulls away from him, planting his hands on either side of Hinata's body, so he can stare down at him. He should really let Hinata have it, for trying a stunt that dangerous, for letting himself get stuck, for scaring Kageyama half to death.

"It was epic," he says, instead, and Hinata beams up at him.

"You saved me," he says softly, topic switching so abruptly Kageyama doesn't realize what he's talking about for a second.

"I—yeah," he says.

"You… you need to go to the hospital," Hinata says, sitting up abruptly. "Your feet—"

"I'm fine," Kageyama cuts him off. "If I hadn't gotten there in time, you might've—" He can't bring himself to say it.

"You're the awesome one, Kageyama," Hinata tells him. He smiles bashfully, and Kageyama feels his heart somersault the same way it does when he wipes out on a wave.

"Why were you trying to do all that?" he asks, dumbfounded.

Hinata bites his lip. "To make you admit I'm not a loser."

The sound of sirens wailing stops Kageyama from saying whatever he wants to say next, as an ambulance approaches from across the bumpy sand. Hinata protests, but Ukai insists, and Kageyama gets bustled out of the way by paramedics wanting to check Hinata for vitals. Kageyama doesn't get to say anything else as they help Hinata into the ambulance—he doesn't know what he _would_ say, if he had the chance.

He watches as the ambulance rolls away. Already, people are coming to check on him, to see if he's alright. The cold, damp mud feels good against his stinging feet now, but the sand will be hell to clean out of the cuts later. He is barely thinking about that.

Hinata had definitely one-upped him today. He had surfed that huge wave just to prove something—to himself, as much as to Kageyama. The thing is, he doesn't have anything to prove. He hasn't for quite awhile.

But the thought that Kageyama's opinion might mean so much to him is something Kageyama hadn't considered—and he'll be damned if he doesn't find a way to show Hinata that he doesn't have to prove anything, anymore.

*

Ironically, it's Hinata who ends up back in the water faster than Kageyama after their harrowing experience. He's in and out of the hospital inside of an afternoon—a bit banged up, but none the worse for wear. Kageyama, on the other hand, has to have both feet bandaged, and is given strict orders to stay out of the water until they heal, which will take at least a few weeks.

He's predictably miserable over it. He's basically trapped in his houseboat, unable to accomplish anything requiring much mobility. Hinata still has classes and the store to attend to during the day, although he and Ukai do come around for dinner every night. Both of them clearly think Kageyama needs the company. It's not unwelcome, although sometimes Kageyama finds himself wishing he could talk to Hinata alone.

He's spent a rather significant amount of time watching the footage uploaded to YouTube of Hinata catching his wave; there's even a little local TV station that ran a five-minute story. They interviewed Hinata for a few brief moments, and although he was clearly nervous, he was still as captivating and charismatic as ever on camera.

"Thirty foot high waves, dangerous surf conditions… let me ask you,” the interviewer had said, “what made you want to get out there?"

Hinata hadn't comprehended the question. "Do you need a reason to keep trying to get better?"

The interviewer seemed to find this engaging; so had Kageyama, who had replayed this part of the news clip over and over, lying in bed with his phone held practically to his nose.

"That's what gets you up in the morning, huh?" the interviewer asked.

"Yeah," Hinata said, with a grin. "That and this guy I know who thinks he's hot shi—" His next word was censored out, as he winced and laughed.

Every time Kageyama watches the clip, he's overcome by the desire to smash his face into his pillow and yell at the top of his lungs. Every time he sees Hinata now, he wants to say something more about the wave and how amazed he is, truthfully, at what Hinata pulled off. He also wants to ask Hinata what he meant, by basically saying that Kageyama is the reason he gets up in the mornings.  

But he's definitely not going to say any of this around Ukai. So, he waits, and thinks much harder about things than he's used to, particularly when it comes to sunny surf boys and their fang earrings and obnoxious, too-colorful board shorts.

He's still a bit tender-footed on the day of Hinata's last surf lesson with the kids for the summer, but he's determined not to let that stop him. When the kids see him approaching across the sand with his board, they all start shrieking, beside themselves with glee. Hinata can hardly have missed his arrival with all the commotion; he crosses his arms when he spots Kageyama, foot tapping in the sand.

"Kageyama, you can't just show up on the last day and expect to pass," he says. "Everyone else is way better than you now."

"Shouyou says you _saved him!"_ Suzy squeals, her eyes shimmering under her thick black bangs. "He says you were so cool, even though you got all hurt an' stuff."

"I probably wouldn't have got hurt if I didn't have to rescue his dumb a—butt," Kageyama says, crouching down to be closer to her eye level. Shouyou hides his grin by looking away, clearly choosing not to rise to the bait. He's been more allowing of insults, lately, though there's no way it'll last. "He was cool too, though."

"I've watched the video at least a hundred times!" one of the boys boasts.

_"Nobody_ has watched it more than _me,"_ Suzy says airily, with a furtive glance in Shouyou's direction. Kageyama strongly suspects she has developed a crush.

He can't really blame her.

The class is as enjoyable as ever—Kageyama mostly floats on his board and watches, because he's still technically supposed to be keeping off his feet. This suits the kids just fine, as they are mostly invested in showing him what he's missed over the past few weeks, namely, how _awesome_ they've all gotten. Most of them really can manage to ride little baby waves on their foam boards, now, and Kageyama makes sure to dutifully applaud each of their efforts every time they look at him expectantly.

There's a strange, stuffy feeling in his chest he keeps getting as he watches the kids all celebrate their achievements, and how oddly integral he and Hinata seem to be to it all. Granted, Hinata is the one who spent the summer showing them how to do everything, but they still seem to want Kageyama there.

"We were gonna wait!" Kenta, Suzy's friend, tells Kageyama. "There's no way we would'a had the last class without you."

"Really?" Kageyama asks, looking over at Hinata.

"Everybody's local," Hinata says. "We probably could've pulled something together, I figured… they really wanted to show you what they learned."

"I have to showww youuu," Suzy says, syllables drawing out insistently, "that I don't suck!"

"I keep telling you I didn't mean that," Kageyama says defensively as all the kids laugh at his past transgressions. "Besides, I can already tell you're going to be a great surfer. Definitely better than Hinata."

"Tobio!" she screams, clearly torn between pride and embarrassment over surpassing her idol.

"No way! I won't let her have my title that easily!" Hinata says, striking his best action pose.

Kageyama deluges him with a huge splash of water. "You don't _have_ a title!"

A lot less surfing and a lot more horsing around follows after this, and in no time at all, it seems like their hour and a half is already up. When Hinata announces it's time to finally bring it in, the kids all "awww" in the most forlorn way. Because Hinata is the way he is, he can't let them go without smiles on their faces.

"Come on, why do you all look so bummed?" he asks playfully. "You know we can see each other out here _anytime,_ right? The ocean's still here once class ends."

"But we can't go out _there,"_ they remind him, pointing way out into the waves. And that's true—those swells are still way too much for them to handle. But,

"Not yet," Hinata says, "but that's why you gotta keep going. Until you can go out there."

"But what if it's too _hard?"_

"You can't tell yourself that already," Hinata says. He glances in Kageyama's direction with the subtlest of winks. "It's like they say, you miss a hundred percent of the waves you don't surf… or something."

"Yeeeaahhh…" the kids all chorus obediently.

"Right!" Hinata gives them a thumbs up. "So keep it up, until you can surf with me and Kageyama!" They all cheer at this, and the little group starts to make their way out of the water, towards where parents are waiting. "Coming?" Hinata asks Kageyama.

"In a minute…" Kageyama says. He prefers waiting until the moms have all filtered away. They are all extremely fond of him for some reason, and when they all try to talk to him he always feels like he forgets how to talk, or what to do with his hands.

He floats aimlessly in the water, wishing he could just paddle out into the waves to catch some. But if he hurts his feet again, it'll be an even longer time before he can get back on his board. Before he can start to feel too restless, he makes himself focus on Hinata in the distance, talking with the kids and their parents, and it calms him down.

It'd be worse, if he didn't know exactly why he had to deal with his current inconvenience, didn't know exactly what it means. It means Hinata is okay, standing there on the beach and laughing. It means Hinata comes around to have dinner with him every night. Hinata, for all his energy and excessive volume, is good at making Kageyama feel calm, even when they're arguing or annoying each other. It's like the ocean, a little bit; the ocean is also loud and constantly moving. But the crash of its waves is still a familiar sort of comfort, even though every wave is different.

Kageyama isn't really sure when he started feeling that way about Hinata. Maybe it was when he began to understand that Hinata loves surfing just as much as he does. But maybe… maybe it's less complicated than that. Maybe it's just that Hinata is Hinata.

Both he and his thoughts have drifted, and when he shakes himself out of his warm reverie it's to see that he's floated quite a ways from the beach. The class has filtered away and Hinata, too, is no longer in sight. And it's strange, how much Kageyama wants him to _be_ in sight. He starts swimming for shore. He really needs to find Hinata…

_You miss a hundred percent of the waves you don't surf._

The sand is a little too warm on the soles of his feet but he ignores it, turning this way and that, wondering where Hinata could have gone. Someone calls his name and he turns to see it's Suzy's mom, waving at him.

"Hi," he says, a bit out of breath despite not having done anything, "sorry, do you know where he went?"

"Shouyou?" she asks. "I think he said he was headed that way…"

"Oh, right," Kageyama says, already taking off in that direction. "Thank you!"

He finds Hinata rinsing off at one of the little shower stations—his back is to Kageyama but he's still recognizable both by his hair and by the tiny purple and green swimming briefs he wears under his suit. The water cascades down his shoulders and even though Kageyama has seen this countless times before (they're perpetually in the water, after all), the sight of Hinata in front of him, looking like that, still manages to drive out any remaining coherent thoughts from his head.

"Hinata!" he says, loudly enough to make several people nearby turn and stare. "Will you go surfing with me?!"

Hinata turns around, hands shoving his hair back from his stunned face. Too late, far too late, Kageyama realizes that these were not the words he meant to say. He meant to be clearer, meant to get his point across much less… stupidly. He doesn't just want Hinata to go _surfing_ with him, for fuck's sake. He wanted to ask him out on a—

"Yes," Hinata says, sounding just as breathless as Kageyama himself does, "yeah, yes, I do."

He breaks into a smile, one of his brightest, and Kageyama is momentarily blinded. But not so much that he can't tell what just happened.

"Oh," he says, and finds himself hard pressed to keep his cool. "Awesome."

Hinata nods and turns back around. Kageyama finds himself very mesmerized by the way he pulls his fingers through his damp hair, combing out the sand. He blinks, caught staring, when Hinata glances coyly over his shoulder.

"I owe you ice cream," Hinata says, and Kageyama's mouth wobbles its way into a smile without his bidding. So much for looking cool.

It's kind of okay, for the time being. He might have messed up the words a little bit; but to Hinata, they're still probably the best he could have said.

*

"Oy, Hinata," Kageyama says.

"Hmmm?" Hinata asks lazily.

"What are you doing?"

Hinata has his eyes closed, his cheek resting on Kageyama's surfboard, arms slung over it. They both float aimlessly in the water. Hinata's board bobs nearby, tethered to him by his leash, but not seeing any use. Not that Kageyama's is really in action, what with him just sitting on it.

"Relaxin'," Hinata concludes. Kageyama pushes a hand into his hair and ruffles it. Hinata doesn't even try to swat him away, he just grins and giggles, silly from the sun.

As planned, they have gone surfing together. It's their first time out in the water, just the two of them—Hinata came to get Kageyama from his boat and then they walked to the beach side by side, boards under their arms, chatting about the surf conditions. Except now they're _here,_ and neither of them is actually surfing.

"We really do look like a couple of kooks," Kageyama says, "bringing our boards out here and not even using them."

"Yeah," Hinata agrees, and another laugh bubbles out of him. "I don't really mind."

Kageyama wants to tell him that he _should_ mind, and they should get up and swim out and catch some waves, but he doesn't. He shuffles his hand through Hinata's damp hair mindlessly, and asks, "How come?"

"Because… we can surf soon anyway," Hinata says, "and right now just being with you in the water is nice." Kageyama purses his lips together and looks away from Hinata determinedly. "Kageyama…"

"Shut up," Kageyama says reflexively. It's not that he doesn't agree, it's just that it is totally embarrassing to feel so mushy about everything, _especially_ Hinata.

Hinata raises his head and then, seeing how dramatically Kageyama is wilting, naturally has to be even more of a pain. "Kageyamaaa…" He scrambles around awkwardly, squirming onto Kageyama's board on his belly like some kind of overly eager snake, before righting himself so he can straddle it, and the two of them are sitting face to face.

"Kageyama," Hinata says.

"What."

"This is, like, a date. Right?"

Kageyama blinks rapidly and then stares determinedly down at the reassuring surface of his board. "...It's a _surf_ date," he mumbles. "We're supposed to surf." It's nice that Hinata has known what his intentions were, all along, without him having to say it.

"It's a date-date," Hinata insists. "Which means we can do other stuff, too."

Kageyama glances around shiftily, before finally meeting his eyes. "As long as we surf eventually."

"We will," Hinata promises him, scooting closer to him on the board. Their knees are touching.

"I guess that's fine," Kageyama says, staring at Hinata as he tilts closer, and closer.

"Great," Hinata says.

"Just kiss me already," Kageyama says.

Hinata does.

He tastes like the ocean. Of course he does; Hinata is one of those people who fills his mouth with seawater purely so he can spray it at unsuspecting victims (mainly Kageyama) and then complain about how salty his mouth gets afterward.

But it's fitting that he also tastes just like Kageyama's first love. Because maybe, he's Kageyama's second.

Hinata pulls back before Kageyama has gotten his fill, looking up at him through lashes flecked with water droplets.

"Does this mean you're not going to be an asshole to me during classes?"

This time, it'll be Kageyama teaching. He's decided this town and its beaches and the waves that roll up onto the sandy shores have too much to offer for him to leave it anytime really _soon._ So, in order to pay his rent (and afford ice cream), he's agreed to help out at Sakanoshita. This includes clerk duties, naturally—but for the first time, the shop will offer advanced surf classes, taught by Kageyama. Hinata was the first one to sign up.

Kageyama leans back in, lips nearly touching Hinata's. "Depends on how much of a loser you are."

Hinata flips the board over, dumping them both in the water, and Kageyama laughs until he can barely breathe. Hinata kisses him even more breathless, both of them trying to hold onto each other and keep their heads above the water at the same time. It doesn't work; but kissing underwater, they discover, is kind of nice, too.

And fitting—because Kageyama is beginning to suspect he's been caught up in Hinata's current for longer than he realized. It still feels a bit like wiping out. But it also feels a lot like riding the crest of the biggest wave he's caught yet.

Because definitely, radically, without a doubt: the feeling is totally epic.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> _We fell in love_   
>  _[Right by the ocean](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyhfeGDJ9CY) _   
>  _Made all our plans_   
>  _Down by the sand_
> 
> \--
> 
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> 
> To everyone who read this fic here, on Tumblr, or both places -- your support and excitement and kind words mean so much to us! Thank you all for checking out the adventures of these two sandy boys :'D For more of our work, or news about any upcoming projects, check out the links below!
> 
> [@esselley](http://esselley.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr, [@Esselle_hq](https://twitter.com/Esselle_hq) on Twitter  
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